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The plain verse says God made Moses as a god to Pharaoh (Exodus 7:1). The phrase has rattled translators for two thousand years. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:1) handles ...
God tells Moses that Pharaoh will not listen, but that redemption will come anyway — by force. The Hebrew says God will lay His hand upon Egypt (Exodus 7:4). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan...
When Pharaoh demanded a sign, Aharon was to throw down his rod and watch it become a serpent. But Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:9) translates the Hebrew tannin with the word ...
The moment arrives. Moses and Aharon enter Pharaoh's court, and Aharon throws down the rod. The Torah says it became a tannin, usually translated serpent or sea-monster (Exodus 7:1...
The Egyptian magicians threw down their rods too, and theirs also became serpents. So far, a tie. But Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:12) adds a detail the Hebrew only hints at...
Why did Moses have to meet Pharaoh by the water at sunrise? The plain text only says that Pharaoh went out to the river (Exodus 7:15). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:15) tells...
When Moses delivers the demand at the Nile, the Hebrew has him speak in the name of the God of the Hebrews (Exodus 7:16). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:16) updates the phrase...
Moses stands at the water with the rod lifted, and God's words are simple and total: By this sign thou shalt know that I am the Lord (Exodus 7:17). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodu...
The first plague is about to reach past the river itself. God tells Aharon to stretch the rod over rivers, trenches, canals, and every place for collecting their waters (Exodus 8:1...
The order was given; now it is done. Aharon lifts the rod, strikes the Nile in full view of Pharaoh and his court, and the whole river turns (Exodus 7:20). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan o...
The plague has a smell. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:21) stays close to the Hebrew, but what it describes is the sensory aftermath of a cosmic blow. The fish that were in th...
The first plague had fallen, but Egypt's astrologers refused to concede. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:22) gives a detail most translations flatten: So also did the astrologe...
The second plague is announced with an almost comic precision. Frogs will not merely swarm; they will specify. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 7:28) lists the destinations: into ...
God commands Aharon to lift his rod and bring up the frogs upon the land of Mizraim (Exodus 8:1). Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:1) echoes the Hebrew faithfully but it is the ...
Moses's promise is exact and generous. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:7): The frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy house, and from thy servants, and from thy people; and...
Aharon strikes the dust and every grain of it becomes a biting insect. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:13) is emphatic: all the dust of the earth was changed to become insects,...
The Egyptian astrologers had matched the first two plagues. Blood — yes. Frogs — yes. Lice — no. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:14) is blunt: The astrologers wrought with thei...
The astrologers finally crack. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:15) records their confession: This is not by the power or strength of Mosheh and Aharon; but this is a plague sen...
Before the fourth plague, God sends Moses back to the water. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:16) restages the old dawn scene: Arise in the morning, and stand before Pharoh: beh...
The fourth plague is introduced with a vividness the Hebrew keeps restrained. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:17) translates the arov — the mixed swarm — as a mixed multitude o...
With the fourth plague, God introduces a distinction that will repeat for the remaining plagues: that day in the land of Goshen where My people dwell, there no swarms of wild beast...
The plague arrives as promised. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 8:20) is terse and terrifying: the Lord did so; and sent the mixed multitude of wild beasts in strength to the hou...
The fifth plague is livestock pestilence, and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:3) renders it with memorable Aramaic precision: the stroke of the Lord's hand shall be as it hath ...
The distinction is now locked in. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:4): the Lord will work wonders between the flocks of Israel and the flocks of the Mizraee, that not any of tho...
The final verse of our batch is devastating because it describes a man who investigates the truth and then rejects it. Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:7): And Pharoh sent certa...
Before the sixth plague breaks on Egypt, the Holy One gives Moses and Aaron a strange instruction. Not a rod to raise. Not a river to strike. Handfuls of fine ash from the kiln. "T...
It happened exactly as the Lord said. Moses and Aaron took the furnace ash in their hands, walked out to meet Pharaoh, and Moses flung the ash skyward. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan r...
Every earlier plague, Pharaoh's court magicians had something to say. They turned their rods to serpents. They conjured frogs. They strained against lice and failed. But when the s...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:14) preserves a warning that cuts through every illusion Pharaoh ever held. "At this time I will send upon thee a plague from the heavens," ...
It is one of the hardest verses in Exodus. Why didn't the Lord simply strike Pharaoh dead and free the slaves? The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:16), the Aramaic paraphrase p...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:18), the Aramaic paraphrase long attributed to Yonatan ben Uzziel, does something the plain Hebrew text does not. It names the source of the...
Before the seventh plague falls, the Lord gives an instruction that reveals His character. "Now send, gather together thy flocks, and all that thou hast in the field," the warning ...
When Moses raised his rod, heaven answered with a miracle that defied nature itself. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:23) describes it: "Mosheh lifted up his rod toward the ...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:24) reaches for superlatives: "There was hail, and fire darting among the hail with exceeding force: unto it had never been the like in all ...
The hail did not simply fall. It worked. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:25), the Aramaic paraphrase preserved in the tradition of Yonatan ben Uzziel, records the damage wi...
Mid-storm, with hail hammering the roof of the palace and fire leaping through the ice, Pharaoh finally says the words. "He said to them, This time I have sinned. I know that the L...
The sky cleared. And Pharaoh immediately went back on his word. The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 9:34), the Aramaic paraphrase preserved in the tradition of Yonatan ben Uzziel...
By the eighth plague, the Torah's language has shifted. Before, it was Pharaoh who hardened his own heart. Now, the Lord takes a share of the responsibility. "The Lord spake to Mos...
The warning for the eighth plague is as graphic as anything the Torah has yet described. "They shall cover the face of the ground," the Lord tells Moses through the Targum Pseudo-J...
It is a remarkable moment. After eight plagues, the ones who crack first are not Pharaoh — but his own courtiers. "The servants of Pharoh said, How long shall this man be a stumbli...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:13) describes the delivery mechanism with quiet care. "Mosheh lifted up his rod over the land of Mizraim, and the Lord brought an east wind...
"The locust came up over all the land of Mizraim, and settled in all the limits of Mizraim exceedingly strong. Before him there had been no locust so hard, nor will there be like h...
"He covered the face of all the land, until the land was darkened, and every herb of the ground was consumed, and all the fruit of the tree that the hail had left; and nothing gree...
The Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:19) records one of the most curious details in the entire plague narrative. "The Lord turned a wind from the west of exceeding strength, an...
The Lord instructs Moses to bring the ninth plague at an unusual hour. "Lift up thy hand towards the height of the heavens," the Lord says (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan on (Exodus 10:2)1...
Pharaoh's patience finally breaks. "Pharoh said to him, Go from me. Beware that thou add not to see my face to speak before me one of these words that are so hard: for in the day t...
Moses's reply to Pharaoh's death-threat is magnificently calm — and the Targum reveals why. "Thou hast spoken fairly. While I was dwelling in Midian, it was told me in a word from ...
Before the final plague falls, the Lord gives Israel an instruction that would change the entire theology of the Exodus. "Speak now in the hearing of the people, That every man sha...
